Patrick Volkerding (born October 20, 1966) is the founder and maintainer of the

Slackware Slackware is a Linux distribution created by Patrick Volkerding in 1993. Originally based on Softlanding Linux System, Slackware has been the basis for many other Linux distributions, most notably the first versions of SUSE Linux distributions ...

Linux distribution A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...

. Volkerding is Slackware's " Benevolent Dictator for Life" (BDFL), and is also known informally as "The Man".

Personal life

Volkerding earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

from

Minnesota State University Moorhead Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM) is a public university in Moorhead, Minnesota. The school has an enrollment of 7,534 students in 2019 and 266 full-time faculty members. MSUM is a part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities s ...

in 1993. Volkerding is a

Deadhead A Deadhead or Dead Head is a fan of the American rock band the Grateful Dead. In the 1970s, a number of fans began travelling to see the band in as many shows or festival venues as they could. With large numbers of people thus attending strings o ...

, and by April 1994 had already attended 75 concerts.Interview with Patrick Volkerding
/ref> Volkerding is a

Church of the SubGenius The Church of the SubGenius is a parody religion that satirizes better-known belief systems. It teaches a complex philosophy that focuses on J. R. "Bob" Dobbs, purportedly a salesman from the 1950s, who is revered as a prophet by the Church. SubG ...

affiliate/member. The use of the word ''slack'' in "Slackware" is an homage to J. R. "Bob" Dobbs. About the SubGenius influence on Slackware, Volkerding has stated: "I'll admit that it was SubGenius inspired. In fact, back in the 2.0 through 3.0 days we used to print a dobbshead on each CD." Volkerding is an avid

homebrewer Homebrewing is the brewing of beer or other alcoholic beverages on a small scale for personal, non-commercial purposes. Supplies, such as kits and fermentation tanks, can be purchased locally at specialty stores or online. Beer was brewed dom ...

and

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

lover. Early versions of Slackware would entreat users to send him a bottle of local beer in appreciation for his work. Volkerding was married in 2001 to Andrea and has a daughter Briah Cecilia Volkerding (b. 2005).

Illness

In 2004, Volkerding announced via mailing list post that he was suffering from

actinomycosis Actinomycosis is a rare infectious bacterial disease caused by ''Actinomyces'' species. The name refers to ray-like appearance of the organisms in the granules. About 70% of infections are due to either ''Actinomyces israelii'' or '' A. gerencseria ...

, a serious illness requiring multiple rounds of

antibiotics An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention o ...

and with an uncertain prognosis. This announcement caused a number of tech news outlets to wonder about the future of the Slackware project. As of 2012, both Volkerding and the Slackware project were reported to be in a healthy state again.

Slackware Linux

Michael Johnston of Morse Telecommunications paid Volkerding $1 per copy sold. After that six-month contract, Robert Bruce of

Walnut Creek CDROM Walnut Creek CDROM Inc. was an early provider of freeware, shareware, and free software on CD-ROMs. The company was founded in by Bob Bruce in Walnut Creek, California, in August 1991. It was one of the first commercial distributors of free softwar ...

began publishing Slackware as a CD-ROM set. Robert Bruce later became Volkerding's partner in ''Slackware Linux, Inc.'' with Volkerding owning a non-controlling, minority, 40% share. Due to underpayment, Patrick Volkerding, "told them to take it down or I'd suspend the DNS for the Slackware store".

, 60% owner of ''Slackware Linux, Inc.'', was sold to

BSDi Berkeley Software Design, Inc. (BSDI or, later, BSDi), was a corporation which developed, sold licenses for, and supported BSD/OS (originally known as BSD/386), a commercial and partially proprietary variant of the BSD Unix operating system for ...

and later to

Wind River Systems Wind River Systems, also known as Wind River (trademarked as Wndrvr), is an Alameda, California–based company, subsidiary of Aptiv PLC. The company develops embedded system and cloud software consisting of real-time operating systems software, ...

. Chris Lumens and others worked for Slackware, but due to underpayment, these people lost their jobs. For the last several years, Volkerding has managed Slackware with the help of many volunteers and testers.

Awards

In 2014, Volkerding received the

O'Reilly Open Source Award The O'Reilly Media, O'Reilly Open Source Award is presented to individuals for dedication, innovation, leadership and outstanding contribution to Open-source model, open source. From 2005 to 2009 the award was known as the Google–O'Reilly Media, ...

Works

* Volkerding, Patrick, and Reichard, Kevin, ''Linux System Commands'', IDG Books/M&T Books, 2000, * Volkerding, Patrick, Reichard, Kevin, and Foster-Johnson, Eric, ''Instalación y configuración de Linux'', Temas profesionales. Madrid: Anaya Multimedia, 1999 * Volkerding, Patrick, Reichard, Kevin, and Foster-Johnson, Eric, ''LINUX Configuration and Installation'', M&T Books, 1998, * Volkerding, Patrick, and Reichard, Kevin, ''Linux in Plain English'', MIS:Press, 1997,

References

Interviews

Interview with LinuxQuestions.org, 2012

Linux Link Tech Show interview (audio), 2006

Slashdot interview with Patrick Volkerding, 2000

Linux Journal interview

Hacker Public Radio Interview, 2011

External links

Patrick Volkerding's home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Volkerding, Patrick 1966 births Living people Linux people Slackware American SubGenii Free software programmers Minnesota State University Moorhead alumni